Despite the VooDoo losing last week at home after fumbling three times and missing a couple of opportunities, Coach Derek Stingley said he is feeling pretty good about tonight’s game at the Chicago Rush (4-2).

“We still have a great deal of confidence knowing that we were a play or two away from beating Pittsburgh,” Stingley said. “We’ve faced the fact that we are a better team than when we started the season.”

Consider that several weeks ago, New Orleans (1-5) looked lost.

Defensively, the VooDoo gave up big plays in losses against Orlando, Jacksonville and Georgia, and was one of the teams in the bottom bracket of the AFL.

But in the past two games, the VooDoo’s defense ranks sixth in the league, giving up 272.7 yards per game, and is seventh in pass defense, which just a few weeks ago was abysmal.

“We’re getting better every single game that we play,” Stingley said. “The offense is getting better under coach Raymond Philyaw, and as we have noted, the defense is getting better — it’s starting to become the way I want it.”

As Stingley has pointed out once or twice this year, the VooDoo is not the same team from 2008, but more or less an expansion team.

Chicago is not an expansion team, but in the past three weeks, it has looked like it. After starting 3-0, the Rush has lost two of its past three games, including 58-51 to Kansas City, the VooDoo’s next opponent, on May 7.

Against Kansas City, the Rush fumbled the ball three times via the center-quarterback exchange and fumbled twice on special teams.

“Watching game film from last weekend, they’ve had some of the same problems we’ve had,” Stingley said. “They had three fumbles from the center-quarterback exchange. That was the outcome of the game right there.”

Even though the Rush coughed up the ball five times last week, they still have a plus-6 turnover margin, which can be attributed to its defense.

“Defensively, they play an attack style; they don’t sit back and wait for a team to screw up. They’re the ones that is creating their opportunity,” Stingley said.

Chicago also is third in the league in sacks, with 11, and that could be a key stat, as well, for the VooDoo, which is last in the league in sacks allowed, with 21.

Chicago quarterback Russ Michna is one of the better quarterbacks in the AFL, completing 65 percent of his passes, with 29 touchdowns. His favorite receiver is Reggie Gray, who has 42 receptions and 15 touchdowns.

As the VooDoo is improving on both sides of the ball, Chicago seems to be going in another direction. Even in their last win, 50-49 against Iowa on April 16, the Rush was outgained by 50 yards and had more turnovers than Iowa.

Ideally, Stingley and the VooDoo would like to jump out to a 14-0 lead like they did last week against Pittsburgh.

“Both teams are going in with a loss, and they’re trying to get back on top of things,” he said. “If we can come out pretty quick, they may feel like ‘here we go again.’”